“It’s like Christmas Eve,” said one person on Twitter Sunday night, as the country braced for the first indictments from the Mueller probe on Monday. The indictment of Paul Manafort was expected, of his business associate Rick Gates, less so. But what riveted the country were the court documents and emails of Trump adviser George Papadopoulos, who is cooperating in the Mueller probe. Bedlam in the Trump regime ensued, as one aide put it, “it’s every man for himself!”

This week Trump made his most aggressive statements against the DOJ, FBI, and court systems for not doing what he thinks they should do. Alarm bells of authoritarianism and not normal were ringing, as were warnings from even some Republicans not to interfere with the Mueller investigation.

Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!

Yes, our 'president' both just called the winner of craziest dictator 2016 fat and suggests he wants to be friends with him.

Sadly this isn't a tweet as it's well in the running,

I know liars, and he's not a liar. Trust me.

“You can only ask [Putin] so many times. . . . He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.
“I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. . . . I think he’s very insulted, if you want to know the truth,”

Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!

Yes, our 'president' both just called the winner of craziest dictator 2016 fat and suggests he wants to be friends with him.

Sadly this isn't a tweet as it's well in the running,

I know liars, and he's not a liar. Trust me.

“You can only ask [Putin] so many times. . . . He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.
“I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. . . . I think he’s very insulted, if you want to know the truth,”

To be Scrupulously Fair to Trump, Angela Merkel is actually the leader of the free world. Trump's administration is so dysfunctional that I'm not actually certain he qualifies as a leader of anything.

__________________

“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith

Profoundly disconnected, socially awkward, and reeking of late-stage virginity, he gives off the creepy Uncanny Valley vibe of a rogue, possibly murderous android or of a man with a too-extensive knowledge of human taxidermy and a soundproofed van.

Seth Abramson has broken some potentially explosive stories involving Papadopoulos. Both threads are worth reading in their entirety.

(THREAD) BREAKING: George Papadopoulos claims to have had direct, significant contact with Trump on two occasions the White House never disclosed—and possibly a one-on-one meeting. His claims prove Trump is lying about his relationship with Papadopoulos. Please read on and share. pic.twitter.com/HLMG3sNMOX

(THREAD) BREAKING: In May '16, after months of selling a Trump-Kremlin meet to Team Trump, Papadopoulos secretly went to Athens to meet a Putin ally. Putin was then in Athens meeting the same man—the only 48 hours Putin was in the EU during the campaign. Please read on and share. pic.twitter.com/lhy75ZISwB

I mean, if our standard is direct collusion between Trump and a Russian operative either with an official position or claiming to work on behalf of the Russian government... we might never get that. Daddy Trump is certainly stupid enough to say something like that in an email, the problem there is that I get the impression that he doesn't use email. It's going to be hard to have a recording or something in writing from Trump as a result, although I suppose there could be writing from someone in the campaign discussing Trump's knowledge.

But it's not that hard to connect the dots between Russian hackers, Wikileaks, Donald Jr and Donald Sr. And there are the other connections, Drumpf calling for Russia to release Clinton's emails, and all the suspicious behavior...

In a legal court it's not quite enough to get Trump himself (but we also don't know everything Mueller knows) but I think it seems quite a bit more likely than not that people in Trump's campaign were colluding with Russia* or people they knew were acting on Russia's behalf, and Trump himself knew this even if he wasn't involved with the details (which he probably wasn't).

And the fact that Trump is trying to cover it up and obstruct the investigation is pretty much about as blatant as it could be while still counting as a cover up.

Also fuck Glenn Greenwald and others on "the left" who are constantly defending Rapey Legolas. His agenda was obvious, but now that the explicit proof has come out... (No tweets since the news came out.)

This thread documents his constant defending Assange and attacking those who pointed out that Wikileaks behavior was pretty much acting exactly how you would expect them to if their goal was to damage Clinton and help Trump, rather than "government transparency."

*ETA: What we've seen from Don Jr is actually incredibly damaging, as it shows him actively collaborating with Wikileaks, who seem to be basically an agent of Russia, but more importantly his meeting with Russians at Trump Tower where he eagerly accepted aid offered on behalf of the Russian government. He claims it came to nothing, they didn't give him anything, but if after a series of lies about the circumstances and content of the meeting successively disproven by evidence you're still willing to take his word on anything, I've got a bigly great university for you to enroll in. And Papadopoulos certainly was attempting to collude with Russia. So I guess I'm actually underselling it.

11/ But Assange's worldview & his perception of WL's functions - as well as his strong dislike for Clinton, who wanted to imprison him - have been very clear for quite a long time, as has his view that impeding US hegemony through leaks is a virtue.

(I also like how he includes images of instances of him criticizing Wikileaks for releasing information on random citizens, as if it has anything to do with the criticism that Assange was a partisan actor which was obvious by the timing, promotion and spin put on their releases* in 2016 as well as the fact that they didn't release anything damaging to Republicans or Trump. Greenwald was willing to criticize Assange for some things... but actively attacked those who said Wikileaks was pro-Trump. No mea culpa for being wrong wrong wrong about that, just "I've criticized them too (about other, unrelated things)!")

*Had to catch myself calling them "leaks". They're not "leaks" when they're hacked and stolen from private citizens.

According to Assange fans Hillary was absolutely going to drone strike him, like her evil snake fingers were hovering over the red "Bomb assange" button she's been carrying around, and so as any good and unbiased person who wants to release the truth, he tried to guide what her opponent should say about her to damage her.

I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with Assange's clear hatred of women and his pride in Trump for not taking "no" for an answer. None at all.